Saturday, July 26, 2008

Of Modesty and Men (and some cute onesies)

I'm all for dressing a child like a child. I'm no prude, understand, but I try to keep Bella out of clothes that make her look like some 22-year old club-hopper that shops at Wet Seal. Living in Florida (where the temperature at 9AM today was already 90) a backless halter dress can be more comfortable, so I will admit that Bella wears some things that are slightly more revealing, but temperature notwithstanding, I like Bella dressing like a little girl, not like a little girl dressing like a ...well, like a Wet Seal-shopping 22-year old club-hopper. Nothing against 22-year old club hoppers or anyone who shops at Wet Seal, understand - I just don't think that's appropriate for my six-year old. To each his own, and whatnot. However, enjoying the whole rock/punk/metal culture combined with my appreciation for the cliche and pop culture reference, I found the following articles of clothing to be really cute and stuff that I would buy, were it not ridicously overpriced:

Inspired by my guitar hero fetish, a little something for Bubba:





















Now something special for Bella:





Heck yeah! Word to me!






And now, from the "I-would-buy-this-if-it-wasn't-$45" department - what better look for a Bubba than baby coveralls? The mohawk totally makes this look, I think.
























This shirt says, "For those about to read we salute you". Phenomenal - I'll take two. If they weren't $32 each. Gosh, it's expensive to be hip. Or at least, to have hip kids.




















This post has made me think about how I think about Bella and the way she dresses but have not thought once about the way Bubba dresses. Well, except one day when I told Brian that the outfit Bubba had on made him look a little "thuggish" (it was a Nike basketball outfit that was waaaay too big with these huge, galooty matching Nike sneakers) but that was more of an observation than a concern. Do you worry about boys and the way they dress the way you worry about girls? Is it because he is still young? I mean, modesty isn't really a issue for men as far as clothing goes, is it? Am I sexist without knowing it or meaning to be?

When I think about what I want for Bella, in the modesty department....well, I want Bella to wear what she wants to wear, to wear what she is comfortable in and what she thinks looks good, while having the confidence in herself to know that she doesn't have to show off her goods in order to attract attention. I want the same thing for Bubba - confidence, and comfort, not just in dressing but also in himself. And I hope that he doesn't wear pants so low that he has to change his walking stride in order to keep them from falling down, because that's annoying. But really, what I want them both to know is that the clothes don't make the man - or woman! You are more than the contents of your closet. As a questionable dresser myself, I think that is the approach to take.

Wow, what started out as a 'hey-look-at-the-cute-onesie' post ended up delving into modesty and mothering. Who knew I had that in me on a Saturday afternoon? That is most assuredly enough of me, I'm off to get some work done before going home to be sick and snotty some more.
Later!

2 comments:

Aimee said...

Fiver got that "ABCD" shirt for Christmas and he gets compliments every time he wears it. It's pretty darn cute.

And I always think more about the girls' clothes than the boys'. It's just the natural law :)

a thorn in the pew said...

I love kids clothes. It's the one time in a mom's life we get to finally play "dolls" on real people. Doggonit. And I heart Guitar Hero too. There, I've outed myself.